Do
you know when and which country issued the first dinosaur stamp ?
Do you know who was the first paleontologist honored on a stamp ?These, and other
interesting facts can be found throughout this site.

The first stamps issued in the mid-19th century have boring designs.
They were rectangular or square in shape, depicting the leader of the
country: king, queen, president, or had just a face value. Even though
people around the world began collecting stamps almost immediately. The
first philatelists tried to find production differences between stamps
of the same design—color or paper variations, difference in
perforation, some errors on images, etc.
It took over 30 years until the first commemorative stamp was
issued. In 1871, Peru issued a stamp showing a locomotive. Shortly
after, many other postal authorities began issuing stamps dedicated to
important events, local and worldwide famous places, landscapes, famous
persons of the county, etc. Nowadays postage stamps are not only
evidence of postal payment, but also ambassadors of the country. They
tell us a story of the issuing country, shows us famous persons,
landscapes and scenic sights, cultural and sporting events, and local
flora and fauna.
The fossilized remains of prehistoric animals, especially large ones,
such as dinosaurs or giant mammals, have always stirred the imagination
of people, creating all sorts of myths and legends about Dragons,
Cyclops, and ancient Giants. The well-preserved remains of the ancient
inhabitants of the earth have very great scientific and material value.
Some of them even have the status of national treasure.

Here is the list of Paleontology and
Paleoanthropology related
Philatelic milestones:

1922
USA, First postal stationery with prehistoric
animalsThis is, very
likely, the very first philatelic item related to
Paleontology.

2c
prepaid envelope from the USA, produced by the Torrance
Lime & Fertiliser Company, from Lomita city in California,
which
shows some prehistoric animals and Neandertaler. [The next Paleontology
related post
stationery issued in Poland
almost 50 years after, with fossil of ammonite on imprinted stamp.]
The image on the cover based on several
earlier illustrations and reconstructions:
Neanderthal man as imagined in Chicago's Field Museum diorama circa
1920.

Illustration by Robert Bruce
HORSFALL for “A History
of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere“, by
Robert BERRYMAN Scoot, 1913, shows a saber-toothed cat
(Smilodon californicus) and
a dire wolf (Canis dirus) fighting over a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus
columbi) carcass in the La Brea Tar Pits.

The La Brea tar pits is very famous because of the huge range
of
fossils, especially of predators like Smilodon.
By the way, Sabre tooth cat (Smilodon) is the
heraldic animal of California and it designated as the
official state fossil in 1973.

There
are also a tetrapod dinosaur on the background, who
leaved muchs earlier as Smilodon and Neandertaler, and some marine
shells on the foreground and as logo of the company
The company used fossils of prehistoric
animals to make their
fertilizer. [A fertilizer is any material of natural
or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is applied to
soils or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients
essential to the growth of plants.]
Very strange use of fossils in today's point of view.
Some prehistoric plants were
very similar to plants
available today. Next time you look for a fern from Avas Flowers or go
to an Avas Flowers floral shop you may buy a fern with prehistoric origins.

P.S. Many
thanks to fellow collectors Peter Brandhuber from Germany and John Noad
from Canada for their help to find an information about the post
stationery and some scans from their collections.

The
only earlier item that can be consider is a post card from Germany
(Postcards without imprinted stamps are not subject of philately, but
Deltiology).
Dinosaurs, perhaps Plateosaurus, shown on its illustration and some Ad
text
underneath. The issue date of the postcard from Germany is unknown,
sent in 1912
from Solingen.
Plateosaurus lived
during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago,
in what is now Central and Northern Europe.
Discovered
in 1834 by Johann Friedrich Engelhardt and described three years later
by Hermann von Meyer, Plateosaurus was the fifth named dinosaur genus
that is still considered valid. Although it had been described before
Richard Owen formally named Dinosauria in 1842, it was not one of the
three genera used by Owen to define the group, because at the time, it
was poorly known and difficult to identify as a dinosaur. It is now
among the dinosaurs best known to science: over 100 skeletons have been
found, some of them nearly complete. The abundance of its fossils in
Swabia, Germany, has led to the nickname Schwäbischer Lindwurm (Swabian
lindworm). More info is on Wikipedia.

From
the nineteen thirties until the fifties, the Sinclair Oil Company
used this meter franking, as well as regular
advertisements
to advertise their motor oil. They chose a dinosaur for a
company logo as a symbol of the great length of time their oil spent in
the ground.

These
were intended for children. In each program when you went to
a Sinclair station on week one you would be given a stamp
album. Then on each 8 following week you would be given a new sheetlet
of
stamps. The books had some advertising material but mostly contained
scientific and
historical information to explain the dinosaurs and petroleum to
children.

1946USA, First
FDCs (First Day Cover) with a dinosaur and prehistoric animal
illustration

On 10.08.1946, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a
stamp to
celebrate the centenary (100 anniversary) of the Smithsonian
Institution.
The stamp itself shows the Smithsonian's
buildings in Washington
(Actually this
stamp itself
can be consider as a stamp of paleontologic thematic as the Institute
has
very large Paleobiology Department). Several FDC with the Smithsonian
stamp shows some Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on its
illustrations.
As illustration on the left side of the first FDC shows a sauropod,
most likely a Diplodocus. Stegosaurs and Morophus shown on others.
Note: all these FDCs are personalized
(made by some dealers
or individuals). US Post doesn't produce any FDC and don't make any
commemorative postmarks associated with their stamps.
On February 7, 1996 the U.S. Post Office Department issued a stamp
to celebrate the 150 anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Similar to 1946, some dinosaurs can be seen on illustration of FDC
covers. Here
is one of them, shows Tyrannosaurus on it.

Sometimes
it is difficult to identify paleontologists on stamps, because they are
shown on neutral background, or just a portrait. On other side, not
every personalities shown on stamps with fossil or prehistoric animal
on the background is paleontologist.

The first stamp (known to me) shows
a paleontologist
has been issued in USSR on January 17, 1947.
Actually it is a set of two stamps
30 kopejka(100 kopejka = 1
rubel), green and 50 kopejka sepia. These stamps are show a
portrait of
A.P.
Karpinskij (1847-1936), who is most known as First
elected president of Russian
Science Academic. However, he was also great geologist and
paleontologist, who made some important discovers at Ural mountains
area of Russia. Note:
there are nothing on the stamp that indicate on Paleontology

On 3 March 1952, Soviet Union issues a stamp titled
"Greatest Russian
scientist biologist-paleontologist:
W.O. Kovalevskij"
with a face value of 40 kopejka and this is
actually the first stamp dedicated to paleontologist.

Vladimir Onufreivich Kowalewskij (1784-1856)
Russian paleontologist and supporter of Darwinism. He was the
one who assumed horses are appeared first in Europe continent then
migrate to North America, then come back to Europe. Evidence of this
theorie found more then 100 years after his suicide due to
some trouble in private and commercial life in Grube Messel
by Darmstadt, Germany. Very little prehistoric horse in size
of a big dog was found there and depicting on stamp of BRD in 1978.

The
first stamp of scientists
with a prehistoric animal fossil on a background has been issued in
Romania on
29 July 1967, as part of set
of famous Romanian people. The green stamp with a value of 40
bani shows Romanian biologist and director of
Museum of Natural History Grigores
Antipa (1867-1944). Some websites and even philatelic
books and catalogs mentioned
this stamp as the first stamp depicting paleontologist on.
Actually, he was not a paleontologist at all
-hewas
the zoologist, ichthyologist,economist, ecologist,
oceanology, museologist. He founded the Romanian school of
Hydrobiology, Ichthyology and Oceanology, was pioneer in the field of
museology, the
author of modern concepts in ecology, biosociologiei,
biosphere.
As director of the Museum of Natural History in
Bucharest,he
had an important contribution to the organization on a phylogenetic and
ecological collections. As a token of gratitude for his work in the
museum since 1933, the museum now bears his name. The confusion is
caused by fossil of
Dinotherium
giganteumdepicting
on a background of the stamp. It is there just because it
isthe
most impressive exhibit of the museum.

Another
category of persons to mention is "Contributors to Paleontological
science"

People
have found fossils since ancient
times, but Paleontology as a
science was established in the
middle of the 19th century. The
establishment was impossible without the
help of scientists from many other
sciences such as biology, botany,
and geology. Many politicians and
wealthy persons supported the young
science.

Modern biology, botany,
and of course paleontology classifies
all animals and plants according a
taxonomic system proposed by Swedish
botanist Carl Linnaeus
(1707
- 1778) in the mid-18th century. The first
stamp honoring Linnaeus was issued
by Sweden on 2 June 1939.

The
foundation of Paleontology is the
evolutionary theory of Charles
Darwin (1809 -1882 ),
who published his famous work, "On the Origin
of Species by
Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in
the Struggle for Life", in 1859.

The fact that evolution occurs became accepted
by the scientific
community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his
theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary
explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the
basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin's
scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences,
providing logical explanation for the diversity of life. In
recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence, he was one of only five
19th-century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac
Newton. Darwin's work had far-reaching impacts on the development of
Paleontology,
Antropology and many other Biology and Psyology related scients.

One
of most notable contributors to
establishment of Paleontology science in
United States was the
third US President Thomas
Jefferson, who is shown on many American and international
stamps. The first stamp of Thomas Jefferson issued in US in 1851.Jefferson
is rightfully renowned as the
principal author of the Declaration
of Independence, the Third President of
the United States, and a champion
of liberty. But he was also a
central player in the beginnings of
American paleontology. In addition, his
participation occurred at a time when
people were struggling with the
ideas of fossils as evidence of
past life, of extinction, and of
an Earth far older than the
Biblical account.
Some of
the objects of Jefferson’s paleontology
became part of the collections at
the American Philosophical Society in
Philadelphia. Beginning in 1849, these
holdings were transferred to the
Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, where they are currently
housed. This is the Thomas
Jefferson Fossil Collection.

Prince
Albert I of Monaco, who had a keen interest in the origins
of man and who founded the Institute for Human Paleontology in Paris
that
was responsible for a number of archeological digs, depicting on many
stamps of Monaco and some international posts, start on 1891
when his portrait appears on definitive stamps.

1949Monaco,
First stamp with cave
painting, first stamp with paleontologic museum, first stamp with
anthropologic museum

On 5 March 1949, the Monaco Post
issued a set of 14
definitive stamps showing various areas of interest of Prince
Albert I, who had a keen interest not only in fishing and sea/ocean
explorer, but also in the origins of man and who founded the Institute
for Human Paleontology in Paris that was responsible for a number of
archeological digs.
Four stamps of the set can be
consider as related Paleoanthropology topic:

Portrait of Prince Albert I

Aurochs drawing from the famous Lascaux cave

The buildings of the Institute for Human
Paleontology
in Paris (face value 25f)

The Musée d'Anthropologie
Préhistorique in
Monaco (face value 40f).

All stamps except the
portrait of Prince Albert I, are the first stamps in
their category.

Stegodons
were primarily an Asiatic group of Mammutidae. This family is believed
to have evolved sometime by the middle Miocene, nearly 15 million years
ago, and became extinct by the late Pleistocene about 30,000–40,000
years ago. Stegodons appear to be transitional between true mastodons
on the one hand and true elephants on the other.

Why are Stegodons
depicting on stamps for the anniversary of the Indian Geological Survey?

In 1928, a three-meter long fossil tusk of an elephantine mammal
(Stegodon ganesa) was discovered by Dr.
Darashaw Nosherwan Wadia
(1883–1969) who pursued his personal research on stratigraphy,
structure, and paleontology of the Kashmir Himalayan region with
single-minded devotion. Being a very keen observer, he worked towards
identification of broad structural elements of the northwest Himalayas.
The discovery of this skull, which was found in association with fossil
ganoid fish and pteridospermous plants, led to the fixing of the age of
an important geological rock formation in the Kashmir Himalayas to the
Permo-Carboniferous period (355–250 million years ago). The fossil tusk
is now kept at the museum of the Geology Department of the Jammu
University.

Note:
On
March 4, 2001 another stamp was issued by the Department of
Post, Government of India , to commemorate 150 anniversary of Indian
Geological Survey, but this time geological
motive has been choose, the
four color stamp shows some minerals.

In 1952, Algeria issued the first stamp showing a
fossil.
In that year, the XIX International Geological Congress was held in
Algeria. The host country
issued two special stamps on 11 August to promote this event.

The ammonite fossil depicting on the 15-franc stamp
is
Berbericeras sikikensis.

The second stamp, denominated 30fr, shows one of the
most famous
geological sites in the country—the Hoggar Mountains.

Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and it is
often
possible to link
the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time
periods. Therefore, they
appear on several philatelic items related to some geological events.

The skeleton (bones) of a prehistoric
animal appears for the first time on a stamp from the United States on
15 January 1955.
The stamp was issued in conjunction with the sesquicentennial
celebration of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

The stamp pictures Charles Wilson Peale’s self-portrait,
“The Artist in His Museum” (see on the right, the image is from Wikipedia)
Many of the museum’s exhibits were collected by Peale, and he includes
some of them in his painting. The stamp features several, like a wild
turkey ready to be preserved as well as a great mastodon bone, in honor
of one of Peale's greatest achievements—the
reconstruction of a mastodon’s skeleton.

On 15 April 1958, the People’s Republic of China issued
a set of three stamps titled, “Chinese
Paleontology.”
The 8-fen stamp depicts fossil and reconstruction of
Lufengosaurus.
Another two stamps, see on the right side,
shows trilobite (Kaolishania pustulosa) of Haoli Mountain from
Paleozoic and the Chinese giant deer (Megaloceros
[=Sinomegaceros] pachyosteus) from Cenozoic.
Lufengosaurus, meaning Lufeng lizard, is a genus of
sauropod dinosaur from the early and middle Jurassic period of what is
now southwestern China. It was named Chinese Paleontologist by C. C.
Young in 1941.
This is one of the few prosauropod dinosaurs to survive from the early
Jurassic era.
Prosauropods, meaning “before the sauropods,”
were small, herbivorous dinosaurs closely related to the giant
sauropods of the late Jurassic period. This dinosaur became the first
complete dinosaur skeleton to be mounted in China and displayed in
Beijing.

Note: The FDC of
this set is very rare, as it was issued in very small quantity.

Between 1958 and 1961 Swiss Post, in cooperation with
Pro Patria organization, issued four semi-postal stamp sets showing
some fossils and minerals from the collections of local museums.

Pro Patria is a Swiss patriotic
and charitable organization. Its
purpose is to give meaning to the Swiss national holiday, 1 August, by
collecting donations to benefit social and cultural works of national
public interest. One of the methods
the organization uses to collect donations is the
issue of semi-postal stamps. The first stamp set was issued in 1938.

All sets contain five stamps: one
stamp with a logo of the
Pro Patria campaign and four stamps showing minerals and fossils. The
additional amount paid for each sold stamp
transferred to the organization. Actually, these are the first
semi-postal stamps with a paleontological context ever
issued.

The set from 1961, distinguished from others, contains two fossil
stamps: a fish and a plant. Both are the first stamps in their
category. The fish
is very likely Scorpaena porcus and the fern plant is probably
Asterotheca meriani. Asterotheca is a genus dating from the
Permian period 299–252 MYA. It
grew in humid and swampy locales and was one of the first plants on the
earth.

Plant fossils are the subject of Paleobotany study. Paleobotany is the
branch of paleontology dealing with the recovery and identification of
plant remains from geological
contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past
environments. It includes the evolutionary history of plants, with a
bearing upon the evolution of life in general. Paleobotany is important
in the reconstruction of ancient ecological systems and climate, known
as paleoecology and paleoclimatology, respectively. It is also
fundamental to the study of green plant development and evolution.

The first colorful, pictorial stamps
depicting
prehistoric animals were issued on 5 March 1965 by Polish Post who
liked to popularize discoveries of paleontologists. The set of ten
stamps show representations of prehistoric animals, mostly
dinosaurs.
The designs are based on pictures by Zdenek Burian, a
Czech painter and book illustrator,
whose work during a remarkable career spanning five decades, played a
central role in the development of paleontological reconstructions.
Originally recognized only native Czechoslovakia,
Burian’s fame later
spread to an international audience, and a number of attempted emulate
his style.
Burian is regarded by many as the most
influential paleo-artist of the
modern era. Many stamps issued around the world are based on his
illustrations.
Only three months later the second
pictorial set
depicting prehistoric animals, also mostly dinosaurs issued in
San Marino,
similar to Polnish stamps design of these stamps also based
on pictures of Zdenek Burian.

In the following year Poland
issues another stamps set with prehistoric
animals from fish till mammoth that supposed to show animal evolution.
The
first stamps set dedicated to prehistoric mammals issued in the same
year in Romania
that shows reconstruction of the animals and
their
skeletons. The next stamps set of prehistoric mammals issued 5 years later
only in Bulgaria.

Also in 1965,
the first stamp
with an early human fossil came from Tanzania,
the “cradle of humankind.” On 9 December, Tanzania issued a set of 14 definitive
stamps with some typical animals, landscapes, and some
historical episodes to show development of the country.
The 1.30sh stamp shows a skull of Zinjanthropus and its excavation site
at Olduvai Gorge valley. Zinjanthropus, later
categorized as Paranthropus boisei, is an extinct hominid postulated
from a skull discovered in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by British
paleoanthropologist, Mary Leakey on 17 July 1959. Perhaps she
is even depicting
on the stamp.

For much of her career, Mary Leakey
(1913–1996) worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey (1903–1972),
in Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the tools and fossils of ancient hominids.
She developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at
Olduvai. She also discovered the Laetoli footprints. It was
there, at the Laetoli site, that she discovered hominid fossils that
were more than 3.75 million-years-old. In addition, she discovered 15
new species of other animals, and one new genus.

In 1960, she became director of excavation at Olduvai and subsequently
took it over, building her own staff. After the death of her husband,
she became a leading paleoanthropologist, helping to establish the
Leakey tradition in the field. Mary Leakey died on 9 December 1996, at
the age of 83, a renowned paleoanthropologist, who had not only
conducted significant research of her own, but had been invaluable to
the research careers of her husband and their sons, Richard, Philip,
and Jonathan

On 31 March 1967, Post
Authority of Cuba issued a set of seven stamps that were the first to
show human evolution. Each stamp shows a skull stage of the human
relevant and depicts major stage of human development
known from worldwide fossil record.

The first two stamps show very early species: Homo habilis, who
lived between roughly 2.8 to 1.5 MYA, and Australopithecus. From
paleontological and archaeological evidence, the Australopithecus
genus apparently evolved in eastern Africa around 4 MYA
before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming
extinct sometime after 2 MYA.

Pithecanthropus
erectus and Sinanthropus
pekinensis both belong to the Homo erectus group that
lived between 1.9 MYA and 700,000 years ago. Pithecanthropus erectus is
known from fossils found at the bank of the Solo River at Trinil, in
East Java. Fossils of Sinanthropus pekinensis, also known as Peking
Man, are found in China.

The Neanderthals,
or Neandertals, are closely related to modern humans, differing in DNA
by just 0.12 percent. Remains left by Neanderthals include bone and
stone tools, which are found in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central
and Northern Asia as well as in North Africa. Neanderthals
are generally classified by biologists as the species Homo
neanderthalensis, but some considers them to be a subspecies of Homo
sapiens (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).

The final Homo species shown on these stamps is the modern Homo
sapiens. The 13c and 20c stamps show
Cro-Magnon men. These are the first early modern
humans that lived in Europe in the Upper Paleolithic period from
500,000 to 10,000 years ago. Current scientific literature prefers the
term European early modern humans (EEMH). Fossils of this species are
found in Italy, Britain, and even in Arctic regions.

All stamps of this set use illustrations by the famous Czech painter
and book illustrator, Zdenek Burian, from a book titled Prehistoric
Man, published in 1960.

On 5 January 1970, Lesotho issued a
set of five stamps showing some footprints of dinosaurs and
other
prehistoric animals. "Dinosaurs and footprints at Moyeni" (1st
serie, the 2nd
serie issued in 1984 and shows footprint of another three
dinosaurs).

Fossilized footprints of dinosaurs
and other prehistoric reptiles, dated of about 200 MYA (upper Triassic
period), found at Moyeni in the Quthig district of Lesotho. Four of
five stamps shows not only the footprint but also
reconstruction of the animals moved at sand and sea shore.

Paleoichnology
is the study of fossilized footprints. Scientists can learn
many things from such tracks. They can give an idea about
size of the animal and if it walked on two or four legs.
The distance between the footprints can indicate the speed and
behavioral of the animal. Many sites have been found with numerous
tracks giving information on the social behavior of the animals,
whether they traveled in herds, pairs, or alone. In addition to all of
this, scientists can learn the animal’s foot anatomy and foot padding. Note: Even to
date, almost 50 years after, there are very few stamps showing
some footprints of prehistoric animals.

On
June 19, 1970 Polish Postal Service issued a post
card to
commemorate the
50th anniversary of the Polish Geological
institute (face value 40
gr., quantity 100.000). The building of the institute depicting on the
left side of the card. The imprinted stamp shows an ammonite of
genus Perisphinctes,
from
collection of the institute. The ammonite is about 30cm in size and can
be founded in various location in Poland.

A
trilobite
of genus Marrolithus ornatus featured on a special post mark issued in
Kielce. This blind trilobite is only 2 cm in size, probably borrowed in
the mud of Ordovician sea floor(485-443 MYA) .

Most stamps issued around the world have been
rectangular or square
shape. However, from time to time some post authorities
produce
stamps with other shapes.

On Octber 31 1970, Angola issued a set of
definitive stamps with title
"Geology, Mineralogy, Paleontology" shows some minerals and
fossils found in the country. All 12 stamps of the set have diamond
shape.

Angolasaurus
is an extinct genus of plioplatecarpine mosasaur. Definite
remains from this genus have been recovered from the Turonian of Angola
and some other places around the world. First named in 1964 by Miguel
Telles Antunes on the basis of a partial skull and skeleton, exactly as
depicting on the stamp.
Another stamp to mention is 2$00, Gondwanidium validum -
the first stamp of
petrified plant.

The
first miniature sheets (or souvenir sheets) were issued before
World.War II,
usually with a surtax for raising funds for a charity rather than for
sale to collectors. They became more of a collectors item with
pictorial issues around 1970.
In 1971 Manama issued the first stamp
set with miniature sheet with a prehistoric animal.

The set contains eight stamps
showing various prehistoric animals, mostly dinosaurs, and a miniature
sheet with a mammoth on a 10-riyal stamp along with some other
prehistoric animals on the margin. The animal depicting on the
stamp is a wooly mammoth (Elephas primigenius), a species that lived
during the Pleistocene epoch from 2.588 million years ago (MYA) to
11,700 years ago, and was one of the last in the line of mammoth
species.

From the 1960s until the end of the
1980s, some small Middle Eastern countries (called “Sand Dunes” by
philatelists) produced stamps in huge quantities for every popular
topic: space, sports, famous people, etc. These stamps were aimed at
stamp collectors rather than postal use and usually were never
available in the country of origin to actually use on letters as
postage. One such set is from Fujeira
(1968).

1980
State of Oman and,
Dhufar,
First unofficial/ illegal issue of stamps with prehistoric animals

In
the nineteen seventies and -eighties, rebel groups attempting to
overthrow the Oman government took control over parts of the country on
the Arabian peninsula. In order to raise funds and to establish
themselves as rightful rulers, stamps were issued under the names
'State of Oman' and ' Dhufar'.
In 1980, a set of prehistoric
animals was issued under both names. Both issues consist of eight
values in a sheet (perforate and inperforate ) and an inperforate
miniature sheet. 'Used' covers exist, but all are addressed to a stamp
dealer.
Since then many companies and individuals have printed stamps depicting
various prehistoric animals, mostly dinosaurs, using the names of
non-existent countries to make money from inexperienced collectors.

Traditionally stamps were printed in sheets of several
postal authorities started to produce stamp sets on sheets. Such sheets
were usually designed as a big picture composed of many different
stamps. On one hand, it is nice to have a whole picture, but on the
other hand, these occupy a large space in an album and are not useful
for non-philatelist customers.

The first sheet like this with a prehistoric theme was issued on 6
November 1990 by the South American country of Guyana. It contained
twenty different stamp depicting South American prehistoric animals.
By
the way, most stamps of prehistoric animals thematic is issued by
Guyana and have just one target - to be collected. Thre are no real
story behund these stamps - just a nice colorfull images of dinosaurs
and Co.

One
of the most beautiful souvenir sheets depicting prehistoric animals,
issued by the United States
on 1 May 1997, shows a
painting by the famous American paleoartist, James Gurney, author of
Dinotopia.
The upper part of the sheet shows some scenes of Colorado 150 MYA. The
lower part shows life in Montana 75 MYA
Distinguished from many artists who create very rough images of
prehistoric creatures he worked very closely with leading
paleontologists in order
to create accurate reconstructions.
One of the scientific advisers with whom Gurney consulted was prominent
American paleontologist Jack Horner. Horner’s discoveries have
significantly advanced our knowledge of dinosaurs. The scientist also
served as a consultant
for the Steven Spielberg films Jurassic Park and The Lost
World.
The First Day of Issue ceremony for the stamps was held
at the Dinosaur Valley Museum in Grand Junction, Colorado, located in
the heart of the world-famous “Dinosaur Triangle.” This area, which
extends from western Colorado to northeastern Utah, has produced a
wealth of dinosaur excavation sites.

Another way to sell many stamps at once is in
stamp booklets, widely
accepted in many countries of the world. The first booklet
with fossils
was issued in Thailand on 1 January 1992. The booklet contains five
mint stamps showing a dinosaur excavation and dinosaur skeletons. These
stamps are part of set of four stamps dedicated to centenary of the
Thai Department of Mineral Resources.
The same year, on 9 September, the Swedish
postal service issued a
booklet with stamps of prehistoric animals consisting of two blocks of
four stamps each.
The booklet also contained some information about the animals.

On 1 October 1993, three British Commonwealth countries (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand)
simultaneously issued some sets of stamps showing dinosaurs and other
prehistoric reptiles. All three sets were sold with a thematic stamp
book, The Stamp of the Dinosaur, which also told the story of
dinosaurs.
Australian stamps issued in several formats: 6 mint stamps
issued in separate sheets of 15, mini
sheet of all 6 stamps. Two stamps from the Australian set
were issued as self-adhesive
and sold as a booklet of ten and in rolls. These first self-adhesive stamps
of prehistoric animals shows the following prehistoric
animals.
Leaellynasaura, about the size of a chicken with a skull
only 6
centimetres long, Leaellynasaura was a bipedal herbivorous dinosaur.
Its eyes were exceptionally large, as was the part of the brain
dedicated to processing visual signals (the optic lobes). It would
appear to have been adapted for life in semi-darkness. During much of
the Cretaceous, when Leaellynasaura lived, Australia was far closer to
the South Pole than it is now, and would have been almost continuously
dark for two or three months of each year. It has been suggested that
this little dinosaur, too small to migrate,remained active throughout
the long winter.

Ornithocheirus,
flying reptiles or pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. However, they lived
at the same time and were warm-bloodedthe energy demands of flight
could never be met with a cold-blooded metabolism. Ornithocheirus lived
in the Late Cretaceous and is also found in Europe, South America and
Africa. During the 19th century, in England many fragmentary
pterosaur fossils were found in the Cambridge Greensand. First found in
Australia in 1979, near Boulia in south-western Queensland. It was a
coastal species, and had a wing span of about 2.5 metres.

On 22 April 1998, the Singapore Post introduced the
first automatic teller machine (ATM) stamps depicting dinosaurs.
The sheet of 15 stamps, with "For the local address only" face value,
was sold exclusively via OCBC (Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation)
bank terminals for a limited period of time. The sheets were designed
with exactly the same dimensions (156×74 mm) as the SGD 50 currency
note and very thin (less than 0.13 mm) so that they could be issued
through the same aperture. These stamps are also the thinnest stamps
related to Paleontology.
Within that period, two
different designs of the backside were
issued, as shown on the right..

The stamps shows the following dinosaurs (from left to
right):

The Pentucerutops
("five horned face") belongs to the family of Cerutopsidae. They looked
like the rhinoceros and were plant-eaters with huge heads, bulky bodies
and heavy limbs and hooike claws.

The Apatosaurus
("deceptive lizard") was from the family of Diplodocidae. The
Diplodocids stood highest at the hips, earing weight upon their
elephantine limbs with short broad "hands" and feet. The Apatosaurus
were plant-eaters which existed in the Late Iurassic period, and were
very large with long whiplash tail and long neck.

The Albertosuurus
("Alberta lizards") was related to the Tyrannosaurus (or T-rex)
featured in the movies. They were fierce predatory animal
that
ran fast and they would lunge with their heads to take "scoop bites"
from their victims bodies.

Next year, in November
1999, the Postal Services of Portugal introduced a new set of Frama
machine labels titled “Dinosaurs of
Portugal”, shows some dinosaur species and some of their
footprints found near Lourinha city. The
area of Lourinha is known by the Late Jurassic findings of dinosaurs
and
other fossils, and give the name for Lourinh
Formation.

Note:

FRAMA
labels are
variable value stamps issued by a machine similar to an ATM. The user
chooses the value at the time the stamp is dispensed. They are very
similar to meter stamps.

Another
ATM-FRAMA of dinosaurs issued by the Postal Services of Portugal in 2015.

These stamps had seven predefined values from PTE 50 to PTE
350 and printed in two different ATM machines: Amiel and SMD.
Amiel
machine used big and bold font, SMD printed the text in small, regular
font. Some machines used black ink rather than blue one , such stamps
are very difficult to get.
Moreover ATM machines at philatelic desk of Portuguese Post
programmed differently as ATM machines at post offices. Stamps sold to
philatelist used a dot (".") as currency separator, when stamps sold at
post offices used a comma (",") as currency separator, therefore mint
stamps with comma separator are more difficult to get.
With introduction of common European currency the ATM machines were
reprogrammed to print face value in Escudo and Euro currency
in
2000 and Euro only in 2002.

The first 3D stamp set has
been issued by South
Africa in 2009.
The
South African Post Office is combining pre-history with modern
technology by using the anaglyph method to create a three-dimensional
effect.
This set
of stamps is the first ever with a 3D effect to be issued by the South
African Post Office. It will also be the first time that a pair of
viewing glasses will be supplied with each stamp sheet and
commemorative cover.
An
anaglyph is a stereo image that requires special glasses with red and
green (or blue) lenses for 3D viewing. To achieve the effect,
two views
of a picture are printed in two colours, usually red for the left eye
and blue or green for the right eye.

There are two mini-sheets
4 and 6 stamps each as well as two FDC cards. Five of the
stamps depict skeletons of different types of dinosaurs, while the
other five stamps show images of what scientists believe these
creatures most probably looked like. All the dinosaurs depicting on the
stamps have an African connection.

Traditionally perforation of stamps
made of small holes evenly distributed around the stamp. Since 2000 ,
for security reasons, some Post Authorities start use some odd forms at
stamps perforation.

On 05th
o f August 2010, Korean Post issued the stamp set "The Age of
Dinosaurs Series (1st Issue)" with perforations in the shape
of dinosaur. In the following years Post of South Korea issued two more
sets of dinosaurs with similar perforations (2011,
2012).

On 5 March 2015, Switzerland issued a 2-swiss
franc souvenir sheet containing one irregularly shaped stamp
depicting an ammonite fossil along with an image showing a
reconstruction of how the creature may have appeared when it was living.

Additionally, souvenir
book
with one more plastic Lenticular
(3d hologram-motion) stamp and several post cards are
printed out. The Lenticular stamp, depict running T-Rex is the
first Lenticular
depicting dinosaur on it. Even though it sold
with the booklet only is a valid post stamp, and can
be
used for postage, see on the right.

On
20 February 2014, Post of Hong Kong issued stamps
set “Chinese
Dinosaurs”.
At present,
China has
over 170 recorded dinosaur species. Hong Kong Post issues a set of six
special stamps on "Chinese Dinosaurs" which introduces six unique
Chinese dinosaur species, with a view to enhancing the public's
understanding of Chinese dinosaurs.

On 19 May, 2017, Post of China issued stamps
set “Chinese
Dinosaurs”.
This
set is printed with a
luminous
effect that makes the unique features of the Chinese dinosaurs
glow in the dark. Moreover, the postage prepaid picture card, with 3D
printing effect, makes the six dinosaurs more vivid. Set
against the environment where dinosaurs lived in prehistoric times, the
souvenir sheet in a block stamp design showcases dinosaurs from
different periods. Glow-in-the-dark effect shown on the souvenir sheet
after absorbing UV light.

Note:
This site used a source of several articles published by owner of this
website Mr. Michael Kogan, also known, as PaleoPhilatelist, in
international
philatelic magazines